Slaxl:I think #1 looks a bit exaggerated. World War over Somoa? I find that hard to believe.

Back in the day, coal ships needed coaling stations. Samoa was the best (or only) place for refueling between Hawaii and Australia. It wasn't a worthless piece of rock, it was the single most strategic point in the Pacific Ocean.

Global warming would actually be good for us and the planet. I'm sad that there won't actually be any significant global warming. If I thought we could influence the climate, eg through increasing carbon emissions then I would support it. But we can't. We're just not that much of a big deal to the planet.

THE GREAT NAME:Global warming would actually be good for us and the planet. I'm sad that there won't actually be any significant global warming. If I thought we could influence the climate, eg through increasing carbon emissions then I would support it. But we can't. We're just not that much of a big deal to the planet.

Meh, ive boughten more then my fair share of carbon offset credits, just like The Lord God and his Prophet "ex vice president, inventor of the intertubes Gore" Intended.

The Black Death plague in medieval England killed off such a big chunk of the population that workers could demand better pay and had more freedom. Well worth the death of one third of the entire workforce.

meyerkev:Slaxl: I think #1 looks a bit exaggerated. World War over Somoa? I find that hard to believe.

Back in the day, coal ships needed coaling stations. Samoa was the best (or only) place for refueling between Hawaii and Australia. It wasn't a worthless piece of rock, it was the single most strategic point in the Pacific Ocean.

That, plus the fact that the Girl Scouts needed Samoa as a cookie source for their fund raising efforts.

Lord Summerisle:The Black Death plague in medieval England killed off such a big chunk of the population that workers could demand better pay and had more freedom. Well worth the death of one third of the entire workforce.

Lord Summerisle:The Black Death plague in medieval England killed off such a big chunk of the population that workers could demand better pay and had more freedom. Well worth the death of one third of the entire workforce.

And yet when I say just one person needs to die I'm labelled an unfeeling psychopath! It's not fair. The extent to which I actively tried to end said persons life is immaterial, and it's still for the courts to decide, anyway.

Hurricanes/storm surge gets rid of the snobbiest of the snobs when their houses float into the ocean. In Massachusetts they are no longer allowed to put sand along the beaches to build them back up, so houses have been floating off in the last storms.

MBrady:AverageAmericanGuy: MBrady: AverageAmericanGuy: Hurricane Katrina: Gave New Orleans a much needed bath and showed us how much of a leader GW Bush really was.

and 0bama did so well with the BP/Deepwater Horizon mess, correct?

If you read the article you would know that by letting the Mississippi flood that year, Obama was able to clear out much of the oil leaked from the Deepwater Horizon.

You can't really blame the administration for the failure of a private company. But in handling the cleanup, I think Obama's record speaks for itself.

And what did the administration do for those 86 days? Nothing.

Interior Secretary Ken Salazar stated, "Our job basically is to keep the boot on the neck of British Petroleum

Public opinion polls in the U.S. were generally critical of the way the President Obama and the federal government handled the disaster and they were extremely critical of BPs response.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deepwater_Horizon_oil_spill

So before you defend 0bama, tell us all here, if a private company were to have a disaster on US soil (on land), would you expect 0bama to leave the solution to that private company?

....

Did Bush deserve some of the criticism? Sure. But let's not forget:

New Orleans Mayor [2] Adding to the criticism was the broadcast of

It has been stated in the evacuation order that, beginning at noon on August 28 and running for several hours, all city buses were redeployed to shuttle local residents to, "refuges of last resort," designated in advance, including the [6] They also said that the state had prepositioned enough food and water to supply 15,000 citizens with supplies for three days, the anticipated waiting period before FEMA would arrive in force and provide supplies for those still in the city.[6] Later, it was found that FEMA had provided these supplies, but that FEMA Director [6] The large numbers were a direct result of the insufficient mobilization and evacuation before Katrina's arrival, primarily due to ...

Slaxl:Lord Summerisle: The Black Death plague in medieval England killed off such a big chunk of the population that workers could demand better pay and had more freedom. Well worth the death of one third of the entire workforce.

And yet when I say just one person needs to die I'm labelled an unfeeling psychopath! It's not fair. The extent to which I actively tried to end said persons life is immaterial, and it's still for the courts to decide, anyway.

TFA: "In all this time, nobody once thought to ask Samoa what they thought."

Fun factoid: Different villages were supporting different countries, and were actually actively fighting each other over this.

After the hurricane, they divvied it up. America got what is now American Samoa, Germany got what is now Independent Samoa, and Germany dropped its claim to Fiji, meaning it was Britain's. Germany lost its share to New Zealand in WWI, and it became independent in the 1970s.

MBrady: AverageAmericanGuy:It has been stated in the evacuation order that, beginning at noon on August 28 and running for several hours, all city buses were redeployed to shuttle local residents to, "refuges of last resort," designated in advance, including the [6] They also said that the state had prepositioned enough food and water to supply 15,000 citizens with supplies for three days, the anticipated waiting period before FEMA would arrive in force and provide supplies for those still in the city.[6] Later, it was found that FEMA had provided these supplies, but that FEMA Director [6] The large numbers were a direct result of the insufficient mobilization and evacuation before Katrina's arrival, primarily due to ...

Your butthurt nourishes me.

truth hurts, eh?

I post facts and statistics and your "comeback" is a childish term that you used in junior high?

Go play in traffic or something, and let the adults talk.It seems to me that the point here is how the events played out in the aftermath of these disasters.

Hurricane Katrina left the gulf coast in shambles, and it stayed that way for years to follow.

The oil spill in the gulf made a huge mess as well, but it was cleaned up in short order.

Bush may have done a good job supporting citizen evacuations during the actual hurricane, but he really dropped the ball in the clean-up and re-build stage of the disaster.

Natural disaster that crushes the homes and ruins lives of many people just to reveal a pedophile? No, not good enough reason for the disaster to happen. It should have just concentrated on his home, not others.

Noticeably absent: the 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens. Eastern Washington was buried in ash that year. During the following years, that new layer of volcanic soil produced some fantastic crops and amazing yields for the local orchards.

JasonOfOrillia:Alphax: JasonOfOrillia: Alphax: JasonOfOrillia: I was hoping for more examples of these disasters encouraging people to not live on flood planes, seasides prone to hurricanes or fault lines.

So, they move to deserts then?

Your world has only flood plains, seasides prone to hurricanes, fault lines and deserts?

I guess there's mountain tops, as long as they're not part of the Ring of Fire.

There are plenty of places that are not prone to flooding, earthquakes or hurricanes. You seem to be making straw-man arguments. I can only assume that you are trolling.

Alphax:JasonOfOrillia: Alphax: JasonOfOrillia: Alphax: JasonOfOrillia: I was hoping for more examples of these disasters encouraging people to not live on flood planes, seasides prone to hurricanes or fault lines.

So, they move to deserts then?

Your world has only flood plains, seasides prone to hurricanes, fault lines and deserts?

I guess there's mountain tops, as long as they're not part of the Ring of Fire.

There are plenty of places that are not prone to flooding, earthquakes or hurricanes. You seem to be making straw-man arguments. I can only assume that you are trolling.

You're argument is a straw man argument in that you imply that the only alternative that I offer with my comments is to live in the desert or on a mountain top. This is simply not true. Again, there are many places that are not prone to flooding, earthquakes or hurricanes. These places do not have to be far from water. If you are near a river you can be up on a hill, for example.

As well, by asking the rhetorical question "Project much?" you imply that I am also using straw man arguments. How have I misrepresented your position?

JasonOfOrillia:Alphax: JasonOfOrillia: Alphax: JasonOfOrillia: Alphax: JasonOfOrillia: I was hoping for more examples of these disasters encouraging people to not live on flood planes, seasides prone to hurricanes or fault lines.

So, they move to deserts then?

Your world has only flood plains, seasides prone to hurricanes, fault lines and deserts?

I guess there's mountain tops, as long as they're not part of the Ring of Fire.

There are plenty of places that are not prone to flooding, earthquakes or hurricanes. You seem to be making straw-man arguments. I can only assume that you are trolling.

You're argument is a straw man argument in that you imply that the only alternative that I offer with my comments is to live in the desert or on a mountain top. This is simply not true. Again, there are many places that are not prone to flooding, earthquakes or hurricanes. These places do not have to be far from water. If you are near a river you can be up on a hill, for example.

As well, by asking the rhetorical question "Project much?" you imply that I am also using straw man arguments. How have I misrepresented your position?

There's so many places that you can't name one.

Anyway, it seemed like you entered the thread looking for a way to look down upon people for where they live. Well, every place is at risk from something, so Mission Not Successful.

Alphax:JasonOfOrillia: Alphax: JasonOfOrillia: Alphax: JasonOfOrillia: Alphax: JasonOfOrillia: I was hoping for more examples of these disasters encouraging people to not live on flood planes, seasides prone to hurricanes or fault lines.

So, they move to deserts then?

Your world has only flood plains, seasides prone to hurricanes, fault lines and deserts?

I guess there's mountain tops, as long as they're not part of the Ring of Fire.

There are plenty of places that are not prone to flooding, earthquakes or hurricanes. You seem to be making straw-man arguments. I can only assume that you are trolling.

You're argument is a straw man argument in that you imply that the only alternative that I offer with my comments is to live in the desert or on a mountain top. This is simply not true. Again, there are many places that are not prone to flooding, earthquakes or hurricanes. These places do not have to be far from water. If you are near a river you can be up on a hill, for example.

As well, by asking the rhetorical question "Project much?" you imply that I am also using straw man arguments. How have I misrepresented your position?

There's so many places that you can't name one.

Anyway, it seemed like you entered the thread looking for a way to look down upon people for where they live. Well, every place is at risk from something, so Mission Not Successful.

You want me to name one? Alright, Upstate New York not right beside a river.

I did not enter the thread to look down on people for where they live but for examples from the article of natural disasters causing the locals to figure out where they should or shouldn't build homes, bridges, really tall buildings. I was hoping for that because there are examples of that out there.

But now you've used another straw man argument. My initial argument was not "to look down upon people for where they live." My initial argument was a critique about the article not presenting examples of positive policies coming from natural disasters. Project much?

JasonOfOrillia:You want me to name one? Alright, Upstate New York not right beside a river.

Still within hurricane range, if not at full strength.

JasonOfOrillia:But now you've used another straw man argument. My initial argument was not "to look down upon people for where they live." My initial argument was a critique about the article not presenting examples of positive policies coming from natural disasters. Project much?

Not really what it came across as. But this is a Cracked article we're talking about.. I'm surprised it was as good as it was.

JasonOfOrillia: You want me to name one? Alright, Upstate New York not right beside a river.

Still within hurricane range, if not at full strength.

The rare hurricane that makes it that far is dramatically downgraded at that point. I've been through them. They are heavy rainstorms at that point.

Alphax:JasonOfOrillia: But now you've used another straw man argument. My initial argument was not "to look down upon people for where they live." My initial argument was a critique about the article not presenting examples of positive policies coming from natural disasters. Project much?

Not really what it came across as. But this is a Cracked article we're talking about.. I'm surprised it was as good as it was.

So is your criticism of me based on my looking "down upon people for where they live" or on my treating a Cracked article seriously?